The earliest leperditicope arthropod: a new genus from the Ordovician of Spitsbergen

Abstract. A new leperditicope from the carbonate-dominated sequence of the Nordporten Member of the Kirtonryggen Formation, Spitsbergen, is the oldest confirmed representative of this group of bivalved arthropods. It occurs at a stratigraphical level low in the Floian Stage of the Early Ordovician, and below rocks bearing graptolites of the Pendeograptus fructicosus Biozone. Its occurrence emphasizes an ‘out of Laurentia’ palaeogeographical origin for leperditicopes, though there are no obvious antecedents in the earlier, Cambrian record of that palaeocontinent.